Page 34 of Reformation
“Sounds like a good guy.”
“He is.”
“You are too.”
Darrel was already starting to shake his head, but Reyes held up a hand as they sat down. “No, don’t let your issues at the helm start to creep into the rest of your head. You can be good at almost everything, and then the one sticking point in all your proficiencies ends up being enough to drag you down that spiral of shame. You’ve got to kick it in the butt before it gets that far.”
“How?” Darrel spooned up a bit of glop unexcitedly. “I’m awful at the helm.”
“Because you’re thinking too hard about it.” Reyes sighed. “They don’t tell you this at the Academy, of course, but the simulations there are slowed down by as much as fifty percent. The idea is that you get the actions down, then as you continue your education, they’re speeded up to more normal speeds. And of course, you’re supposed to be able to practice on little ships before they stick you on a big bubba like his one.
“You were what, second year? Just starting?” Darrel nodded. “Then it’s ridiculous to think you’d do any better than you are right now. I don’t care if you’re Parrish the Pilot’s family or not. Your grandfather wasn’t born knowing how to fly a starship, and neither were you. Neither was I! But everybody can learn.”
“But it’s—” Darrel paused, trying to think of how to express his thought without sounding like a complete idiot. “It doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I shouldknow, you know? That’s the vibe I got at the Academy too.”
“Fucking Academy bullshit and their ‘vibes.’” Reyes rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not talking down about the Legacy program, I know it gets a lot of kids an education they might not get otherwise, but it also sets a lot of people up with incredibly unrealistic expectations. Your grandfather died when you were, what, under a year old? Or were you evenalivethen? And people expect you to just pick up piloting like it’s nothing, like you’ve been studying it for decades, like he did? It’s crap.
“But it’s not like they make it easier for you to do anything else either. If I had to guess …” She looked at him narrowly. “I’d say … diplomatic track. The way you talk about your friend makes me think your interest is more than passing.”
“I’m doing a dual track,” Darren admitted.
“You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”
“It’s a distraction. Or so I’m told.”
“People suck.” Darrel coughed out a surprised laugh, and Reyes pointed her spork at him. “They do! It’s one of the few truisms I feel like I can really get behind. Space is full of surprises, the path of life never runs smoothly, and people suck. Not all the time, thank goodness, but enough that most of the time I just wish I could fly the ship all by myself if that makes any sense.”
“Youmight be able to,” he said truthfully. “You’re fast at the helm.”
“Nah, I’d get tired after a few hours, but that’s nice to hear.” She winked. “Now about your piloting. We’re gonna go to the sims together after lunch, and I’m going to use my badge to enter a program that will give you an accelerated practice regime. We’ve got a week and a half before we get to Pandora, and if you spend a few extra hours a day on the simulators, you should be able to get your reflexes up to where they need to be by the time we arrive. Sound like a plan?”
“Why are you helping me?” Reyes looked hurt by the question, and Darrel moved fast to explain. “I’m really grateful that you are, but it’s like you said … people suck. And there’s a lot of competition here, a lot of cadets looking to distinguish themselves and get tabbed before they graduate, like you did. Nobody else has offered to help me with anything.”
“Have you offered in turn?”
Darrel felt himself start to flush. “No. I haven’t.”
“Well, it’s got to start somewhere. I’m sure someone out there would love to learn how to speak Perel but doesn’t feel bold enough to ask Grennson.” She winked. “Just a thought. Now finish your delicious glop, and let’s get going before the simulators are all full.”
Chapter nineteen
Jonah
There were only so many things Jonah could do before he ran out of ways to be responsible. After he staggered into the bunker, he got Lacey set up on the cot and attached her to the Regen unit. Even though the serum didn’t work on her the way it would on him, it was still full of nutrients and painkillers and would keep her hydrated, which was better than nothing. He watched the slender needle penetrate her arm, read her values on the diagnostic screen, watched her pulse and blood pressure stabilize, and let out a sigh of relief.
Lacey was as good as she was going to get right then, and thankfully still unconscious. He could move on to settling himself.
Jonah checked the cabinets and found the enhanced water, preserved food, and a bunch of blankets. He drank until his thirst was gone, used a few of the blankets on Lacey, and took the rest to make himself a pallet on the floor. He let the Regenunit check him quickly, not wanting to strain its resources, but apart from a minor electrolyte imbalance and fatigue, he was still good. He lowered himself onto his pallet and almost immediately fell asleep, with the satisfaction of a job well done.
Waking up was … not as satisfying.
Lacey was fine—she had moved from unconscious to asleep, and Jonah wasn’t looking forward to explaining to her exactly what was happening, or what she was going to have to deal with, but she was stable for now, and that was the most important thing. The storm was still raging outside. They were safe, they had survived. Great.
Greeeeeat.
Therehadto be more to do. Jonah went through the cabinets again, taking note of all the food and water and rationing it out in his head. An old-fashioned radio, the kind that had been passed around way back at the founding of the colony, was on one of the bottom shelves. They’d been prepared for a lot of contingencies early on, making sure people could contact each other and the colony ship no matter where they were. A lot of those emergency preparations had fallen by the wayside as the colony matured, but Jonah was pretty sure he could still figure out how to work the thing.
He pulled it out and attached a line from it to the generator and held his breath as he waited to see if it would initialize. It should—it was practically an antique, a combination of analog and digital that hadn’t been popular since Old Earth, with no way to access an implant but with the span to detect most modern frequencies. It should work.
